Exploratory Project
Neural networks are one of the most broadly applicable machine learning tools we’ve seen in the course, and can be used in a wide variety of different settings. Instead of completing Traffic, you have the option for this unit to complete an exploratory project, where you build a neural network for a classification task of your choosing. To complete the exploratory project, you should:
- Pick a topic area of interest to you: options include art, biology, business, energy, engineering, epidemiology, finance, government, language, law, medicine, music, sports, and more.
- Find a data set about the topic.
- Send a brief proposal email to Brian, Doug, and your assigned teaching fellow describing what topic you’d like to explore and what data set you plan to use.
The above three items should be completed no later than 2022-07-27T23:59:00-04:00 to be considered for approval. Project ideas submitted after that point will not be approved, and you must therefore complete Traffic instead.
- Once your project is approved (unapproved projects may not be submitted!), build a neural network using TensorFlow to perform a classification task based on your data set.
- The expectation is that the bulk of your time on this project should be spent on implementing this neural network, not manipulating data. Projects that seem to not satisfy this expectation will have a maximum possible Design score of 3 out of 5.
- Submit the code for your network along with a comprehensive
README.mdfile that describes, in one or more paragraphs, how to run your program. Your teaching fellow should, ideally, be able to do everything they would need to do with the project by reading theREADMEalone. - In addition, in your
README, document (in at least a paragraph or two) your experimentation process. What did you try? What worked well? What didn’t work well? What did you notice?
Data sets of interest might include
- Census data
- Global COVID-19 data
- U.S. government open data
- Kaggle data sets
- any other data set of your own interest and choosing!
How to Submit
- Download a ZIP file containing your implementation of this project.
- Go to CSCI S-80’s Gradescope page.
- Click Project 5: Exploratory.
- Drag and drop your ZIP file to the area that says “Drag & Drop”. If (and only if) your ZIP file is too large, minimally upload your
README.mdprior to the deadline and email the ZIP file to your teaching fellow instead. - Click Upload.
You should see a message that says “Project 5: Exploratory submitted successfully!” Contact your teaching fellow if not!